Walking a Disciple’s Path, Together
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
–Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963
Since we started the summer walking down A Disciple’s Path, our church wide study and worship focus, I can’t help but notice all the ways God weaves our lives together. A Disciple’s Path focuses on the commitments folks make when they join a United Methodist church, committing their prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Really, these are commitments that each person who seeks to be a follower of Jesus makes. While these commitments are made by individuals to God, we can’t truly live them without a community.
The faithful prayers of the church are beautiful to witness. Each Sunday, we take time to share our praise reports and prayer requests out loud, in our hearts, and even through text messages. Isn’t technology wonderful (sometimes)? Being able to offer up the deepest cries of hearts to God and one another speaks volumes to the trust shared among us.
Not only do we pray for and with one another, God empowers us to be the answer to many of our prayers. Another way of saying it, we live as the body of Christ. God’s presence in our lives allows us to be present with one another. Have you ever been in a conversation when someone was listening, truly listening, to what you had to say? In my humble opinion, there are few greater gifts and acts of compassion. We share God’s loving presence as we meet for worship, small groups, and even visits on the front porch with a big ol’ glass of sweet tea.
So many of these opportunities are made possible by your gifts. We acknowledge that everything we “have” is a gift from God. We are stewards of God’s gifts, giving back to God who loves us with an incomprehensibly generosity. As I mentioned during a recent sermon, your financial support of Epworth Children’s Home is part of the reason that we have such a wonderful and gifted District Superintendent. Rev. Ken Nelson is an alum of Epworth and credits the love of God that he experienced there in shaping his life toward ministry. I wonder how many future leaders God is currently raising up at Epworth because of our gifts?
As we give of our financial gifts, we are reminded that each of us is gifted by God. Yes, even you! God gives us these gifts so that we can be in service to the world. As the prophet Jeremiah reminds us, God has a plan for each of us and calls us to serve. As we look around, I’m reminded of a saying from a friend in The Bahamas, “It is what it is, but it ain’t what it’s supposed to be.” God enables us to use our gifts through service to turn “it ain’t what it’s supposed to be” into the world as God intends it to be. God opens our eyes to injustice and calls us to respond. This means that we get to experience heaven, the kingdom of God, come down to earth a little bit more each day as we serve God and our neighbor.
Our service is part of our witness. We get to share that God so loves the world that God intends to make things right. Where there is crying, God will wipe the tears away. Where there is pain, God will bring about healing. Where there is death, God will bring new life. How fortunate are we that God invites us to share this good news with our speaking and our living?!
I can’t imagine living out these commitments without each of you at Beulah. Nor would I want to! Offering my prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness is so much more rich because of our mutual encouragement, challenge, and inspiration. As we live in a time that is hyper-focused on the individual, I am eternally grateful that we do not walk a disciple’s path alone, but together, with God.